The Eagles practiced on Monday. I’ll do a roundup of practice notes on Tuesday morning.

Nick Foles met with the media after practice. He didn’t have all that much to say, but I was happy with one thing he said. At one point, Foles mentioned trying to cut out mistakes, and then noted that he had made a couple of mistakes at practice. That simple observation is huge to me. Half the battle with getting better is knowing that you make mistakes and aren’t perfect.

Remember last year when Mike Vick was mad because he had to compete for a job? Or when DeSean Jackson was upset at running with the 3rd team in practice? Both guys knew they were supreme talents and couldn’t understand why Kelly wouldn’t acknowledge that and act accordingly. Both guys were established star players. Why should they have to prove themselves?

The very best players rarely have that attitude. When Tiger Woods was the best golfer walking the planet, he was also the hardest working. He practiced relentlessly. Jerry Rice was the best WR in football and he was a perfectionist in practice. Michael Jordan was so competitive in practice that he slugged a teammate.

Foles isn’t a special talent, but he at least does understand what it takes to try to get to that level. You need to acknowledge your mistakes and work on them. You need to improve the things you do well and try to do them even better. Don’t let good enough be good enough, as Bill Parcells liked to say.

We’ll see how Foles pans out in the long term, but it won’t be a lack of focus or effort that keeps him from succeeding.

* * * * *

Eagles are all done with draftee signings, now that Marcus Smith is in the fold. Four-year deal.

Glad Marcus is officially done. Players almost never holdout under the new CBA, but it is just good to know that the deal is done. Now he can concentrate on making it to the Hall of Fame. Or being an effective role player as a rookie. Whichever.

* * * * *

Going back to the minor league discussion from earlier today. A few points…

* Is college not already a developmental league? No. College teams play to win games. A developmental league would be built to develop players, just as minor league baseball teams do. They want to win if they can, but the focus is feeding talent to the majors.

* What about the CFL? That is a whole other kind of football. A couple of guys try to make the jump to the NFL every year, but few succeed.

* Any developmental league would be run by the NFL. That means the NFL would hire the coaches. As to how teams would choose offensive and defensive schemes…that would be done by the coaches. It wouldn’t benefit the Eagles a ton to have a DL playing in a 1-gap 4-3 attack, but I don’t think you can design the league around players going to specific schemes. You want the players to get on the field and get as much time as possible. You can learn, even playing a different scheme.

* Any league would probably be sending minimal talent to the NFL. Teams just wouldn’t be putting good players into it. From the current roster you might send…S Keelan Johnson or OL Michael Bamiro. Maybe OLB Travis Long would go. You could send over one of the RBs (Tucker or Josey). GJ Kinne would be an ideal candidate.

The point is that the NFL team would keep their best players in Philly. They’d want those guys at all the OTAs and the full Training Camp. Those players would be expected to develop in Philly while practicing.

* There is no perfect way to do this. I just hope the NFL tries something. There are some talented players on the street who deserve a chance to play some kind of organized football. Getting a handful of snaps in OTAs and at Training Camp isn’t enough for them to show what they might be able to do. The success percentage would be low, but that’s okay. You can see holes on all 32 rosters. The NFL needs to find more talent somehwere. Not stars, but solid role players and the occasional starter.

_

SteveH

I’d love to see a developmental league just so there’s some football in the offseason. I didn’t give a rats ass about NFL-E but I still watched games sometimes.

Nick ‘IgotaconcussionandwokeupthinkingI’mPeytonManning’ Foles is such a gift. I love the fact that when we drafted him the universal reaction was … what? You just never know where star players are going to come from.

Say what you want about the fat man, but he knew his QB’s.

Cafone

On one hand you could say AR knew his QBs, on the other hand you could point out that he drafted Kevin Kolb in the 2nd round. Other than McNabb, Reid drafted 5 QBs. One looks like a starter.

anon

But all were flippable for picks or players. Can’t say that about a lot of these guys.

Trip Micali

Being able to read defenses not only quickly, but correctly, and then delivering the football on target rates as a special talent to me.

Media Mike

Certainly a far better talent than being able to run around.

Finlay Jones

I find it odd that this point wasn’t made. Why aren’t those things taken into account when discussing talent as opposed to just what, arm strength and athleticism. Weird.

eagleyankfan

backhanded comments is all he gets here….

GEAGLE

Yeah I hate the way people describe QB talent…. Every QB in the NFL has a physical skill set that has been successful in the NFL at some point In time. TRUE QB TALENT is the measure of what’s between a QBs ears

Nicodemus_09

Damned straight. It makes me think of all the track stars that Al Davis plucked over the years thinking that would automatically translate into a HOF receiver. The fact is, just about all the best receivers I can think of get it done with brains & good hands first. Chippers assessment of Foles being “fleet of mind” to me, is about the best compliment you can give a QB. running fast & throwing hard but not reading a def…..wait, I’ll save a butt load of time & just say Mike Vick.

Phyxius

Foles – “…there’s no dollar sign on me when I’m throwing the ball.”

Deep down, I want to believe this was a shot at Manziel.

Media Mike

There are some very scary people on Baltimore and Cincinnati who are going to put some very big shots on Manziel. Maybe even a person from not-scary and overrated Pittsburgh could put that shot on Manziel.

anon

If i was them i’d just play Hoyer until next year — Manziel doesn’t have a Mike Evans to bail him out.

Cafone

I’d like to see a European system so that Jacksonville would get relegated to the developmental league.

JakFTW

As a football (soccer) fan, I remember reading that US owners of european teams like the Glazers (Man U), Henry (Liverpool) Kroenke (Arsenal) etc are petrified of the idea of relegation and how it can effect their investment. Missing out on the champion’s league can also have a significant effect on revenue – Man U will miss out on as much as 50 million pounds.

I’m thinking there isn’t a single NFL owner that would contemplate for a moment signing up for the possibility of being relegated, and the loss in revenue that would come with it.

With that said… I too, would have no problem seeing Jacksonville getting relegated

GEAGLE

YES!!!! Worst two teams every year, get kicked out of the big leagues and have to go play in minor leagues.. Awesome idea. Love it!

Media Mike

I’m sorry I missed the developmental league conversation yesterday. I think it would be excellent to have two of them actually. League one would be the NFL minor league with players who were actually the property of an NFL team, be located in 8 cities, and placed regionally near 4 existing teams for the reasons Tommy mentioned yesterday. Each team would contribute 12 practice squad players to that team and be able to call them up at any point during the NFL season to replace an injured player. This already works well in the NHL and MLB. The 2nd league would be in the winter / spring and would feature players signed by the league directly out of high school. They could play player an 8 game season from mid-Feb through mid-April and be eligible for the NFL draft at any time by any team. This league could be played in a combination of Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California.

In either case, the NFL needs to take greater control of the pipeline of talent coming into the league.

hrtak

Hi guys, at first place – sorry for my english, Im not native speaker :-). I live in Europe (Czech Republic/Prague), Im around football for last five years and I can see how is football growing even in this small country. When I started with football, there were no TV coverage, and just few teams. Now we have like 7-8 games in TV/week, 3 leagues and even one of our team plays Austrian football league, which is probably best in Europe. The team is called Prague Black Panthers and their actual QB is Kyle Newhall Caballero, who was practice squad QB for Raiders (let say, the same like GJ for Eagles) and he is probably best QB in the league now. In AFL are also two teams with NFL connection – Vienna Vikings and Swarco Raiders, who have some support from NFL, same logo etc. I think, thats the right way – something like NFL Europe v2, where every NFL team can have their developmental team for those players. The costs here are much lower and it can also popularize football in Europe muuuuuuch more (=money for NFL) without need of “original NFL franchise” in Europe. Ive also attended NFL game 2 years ago in London. Wembley was sold out, it had great atmospehere and there were lot of fans from across Europe. People here are starved for quality football, but nobody from US can see it :(. NFL Europe was good idea, but it was too early for it and the format wasnt ideal.

John O’Doherty

The interesting thing about a developmental league – and I hope this happens – it could eventually supplant the NCAA indentured servitude known as college football. If the NFL Players Assoc. negotiates a deal with the NFL to create an option for scholarship football players who have no interest in academics, the upstanding University presidents and alumni and lawyers will be tripping over themselves to introduce “modest revenue sharing”. It would be a great day for all (except those hypocrites who embrace the current injustice).

Donate to Iggles Blitz

Riley Cooper did not have a good year in 2014, no matter what Chip Kelly says to the media. He is due to make $4.8M this year. If the Eagles cut him now, Cooper will have a cap hit of … Continue reading →

March 2 – 4pm – Teams must place franchise or transition tag on players. March 7-10 – Teams allowed to negotiate with free agents and their representatives. But no deals allowed to be signed. March 10 – Teams must give … Continue reading →

I have mixed feelings on Pro Football Focus. They do some good work, but there are other times when I greatly disagree with their assessments. Here are some comments on Nate Allen from an article on free agent Safeties. 6. … Continue reading →

Some funny stuff on Twitter during and after the Super Bowl. No way the Seahawks can think about extending Russell Wilson now after throwing a pick like that. Probably have to let him test FA next yr. — Brandon Lee … Continue reading →

The Eagles are in good shape for the season finale. Nick Foles is out. Bradley Fletcher (hip) is questionable. Everyone else is good to go for #PHIvsNYG — Eagles Insider (@EaglesInsider) December 26, 2014 Of course, you can insert your … Continue reading →